GC Pro Helps Chicago’s Earhole Studios Stay on the Leading Edge

— Newly installed Avid D-Command mix console was installed over a long weekend and ready to go to work at the beginning of the week thanks to GC Pro’s logistical experience and willingness to be there when needed —

— For over 20 years this successful Chicago Loop music and audio house has worked with top commercial clients, and GC Pro has been a longtime partner —

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, March 13, 2012 — Earhole Studios has been part of Chicago’s thriving commercial music and audio business since 1990, currently serving clients including UPS, Chrysler, Sprite, Motorola, Allstate, BP and other major international brands. One of the reasons this 10-employee facility has been so successful is that they truly partner with their clients, looking for the nuances that will make the outcomes of their collaborations truly unique. That’s also the kind of support that Earhole Studios has long experienced with Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, which has been providing Earhole Studios with sales, service and advice for years.

GC Pro has been the vendor for equipment that has gone into Earhole’s main Chicago location’s three mix rooms and their satellite locations in Los Angeles and Detroit, and even for many of the staff composers’ own personal studios. Most recently, GC Pro provided a new Avid D-Command recording and mix console that was installed in Earhole’s Studio B in Chicago, replacing an Avid Pro Controller there. But GC Pro provided more than just the products that help keep clients like Earhole Studios on the leading edge – they also offer expertise and know-how that makes major transitions like these easier and seamless.

“The new D-Command needed to go in and be up and running over what amounted to a long weekend, which was no simple task,” recalls Eric Lambert, a veteran Composer and Creative Director at Earhole Studios. “What made it happen was that the guys we’ve worked with at GC Pro for years, Dan Scalpone and Javier Briseno, not only got us the equipment we needed but also helped us pre-plan the entire transition from one console to the other. The trick to successfully pulling off a major installation like this is to plan it out in as much detail as possible in advance, in order to keep the amount of downtime for the studio to a minimum, and that’s something that Dan and Javier were incredibly adept at.”

GC Pro’s experienced sales representatives made sure they were available for Earhole’s staffers throughout the weekend of the installation, ready with any last-minute extras. Then there’s what Lambert calls the “last five percent” – the items that almost no amount of planning can allow for until the job is nearly finished. “GC Pro was there for that, too,” he says. “Whatever we needed, whenever we needed it, it was there for us.”

Looking over the studio, Lambert estimates that at least half of the equipment there was procured through GC Pro, including every piece of Avid gear in all of the facilities. Calling on his years of experience in advertising, Lambert offhandedly composes what could be the GC Pro mantra: “Always available, always knowledgeable, always helpful, always there,” he says. “What else could you ask for?”